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Mix it Up... March 2011

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

March 1, 2011 marked the First Anniversary for Reimer Alliance International Inc. The past year has been a very busy and positive year of transition for the Company. As the new leader of the organization, it has been exciting and challenging to work with and become part of, the Reimer Family. To be part of such a committed and outstanding Reimer Team, identifying goals and developing a vision for the future has been incredibly fulfilling.

We have analyzed every aspect of the business to ensure that Reimer Alliance is positioned to meet all possible opportunities. In doing so, we have:

• Worked to strengthen and provide definition to our relationships with our strategic partners.
• Implemented new systems and business processes.
• Refined the company’s R&D and new product development goals.
• Invested in new marketing materials, new website, video and other promotional materials.
• Continued and will continue to develop meaningful and valuable content, making a greater effort to communicate with and support our customers as they work to grow their business.
• Committed to making it easier to source parts as well as regularly providing "tech tips" that will help our customers get the most from their Reimer Mixers.

On our own continent and around the world, people and businesses are adjusting to the economic challenges of the past two years. We at Reimer Alliance believe without question, that investment in a Reimer Mixer can provide both quality and cost advantages to companies in a wide variety of construction- related industries and businesses.

To those of you that are already enjoying the benefits of Reimer Mixer ownership, I thank you. To those who are looking to give their business a competitive edge, make this the year to experience the Reimer advantage.

Please check us out on the web at www.reimermix.com. I personally, would appreciate any input on what and how we can better serve you.

Larry Koop – Managing Director
lkoop@reimermix.com

REIMER AT WORK

192-Hour Pour: No Rejected Loads
Inland Grain Terminal Complex, Gleichen, Alberta 

PTC Construction is one of very few companies in North America that construct grain terminals using slip forms. The logistics’ schedule for this type of work is massive. Managing concrete delivery and training crews, installing rebar, placing bulkheads and operating 7 X 24 until the pour is finished. Once a slip form pour starts it cannot stop. All elements of the supply chain need to keep working. Everything from mechanical or electrical failures, mixer travel times to bad weather needs to be planned for. One hiccup and the whole job becomes more complex. Justin Paterson, project engineer/manager for PTC Construction remarks “The Reimers have been a real success story for this project; we’ve had continuous control over the mix and have never had a rejected load.”

The concrete supplier for this project was LPR Concrete, based in East/Central Alberta. With 50 years of combined experience with mobile volumetric mixers, the ownership group targets projects that present unique concrete supply challenges and offers contractors solutions and services that this mixing system can provide. Not only does LPR provide volumetric mixing solutions for contractors, it also proves to be a more profitable part of their business. When asked to bid on the concrete delivery for a new grain terminal complex using a slip form to construct the grain terminal and traditional forming for bases and pads, LPR knew they could provide a unique solution for PTC Construction. Rather than putting a portable batch plant on site where it would sit idle in between pours, LPR pitched the benefits of using mobile mixers.

COMPLEX PROJECT

Concrete pours for the entire project were scheduled intermittently over a number of months, culminating in a continuous, eight-day slip form pour for the terminal itself. When there was no pour scheduled, the Reimers could be driven off to be used at other locations. This left only a loader, cement silo and raw materials at the site. When concrete was scheduled, three or four mixers could be driven to the site, charged and would produce up to 600m3 a day. Once the slip form pour started, two Reimers were continually charged for 192 hours, with a third Reimer standing ready as back-up.

LPR could show that with very few assets on the site and a unique ability to deal with changes in temperature that volumetric mixers were the best way to go. During the eight-day slip form pour which occurred at the end of October, temperatures ranged from -10°C to +6°C.

Hot water was used and steamed sand was available to ensure that the concrete maintained a constant temperature. There is huge advantage to the contractor in not having to plan for whatever could go wrong at the batch plant, or dealing with delays in transit mixers getting to the site. “Each Reimer is virtually its own batch plant, so we had triple redundancy on-site which is much easier to manage than a ready-mix plant 60 kilometers away” states Larry Hooper one of the partners in LPR Concrete.

REDUCING RISK

Because of the nature of slip form construction, long supply lines can become a logistical nightmare. At one point in the pour a pump clogged. This shut down the pour for approximately 3 hours. “If a traditional ready-mix operation had been employed, there would have been a lot of rejected loads and wasted concrete with transit mixers having to waiting for several hours. The nearest Ready-Mix operation is over 45 minutes away, which would mean we would be tying up a lot of resources and assets in order to complete this pour. Not to mention all the back-up and redundancy that would be required at the batch plant. Once we start pouring we must continue, so spare parts, back-up generators would all have to be on-site and capable of being deployed immediately if there was a problem. With the Reimers, we could simply stop production until the clog was fixed and then start right back up again,” commented Paterson.

LOWERING COSTS

Delivery from a traditional batch plant would have at least two batchmen, one or two quality control people on-site. Additionally, it would have tied up six trucks and drivers (two mixers on-site at all times; 1.5 hours travel time to and from the batch plant to the site) for over a week. Instead with the Reimers, three men worked the night shift and four men worked the day shift. The 32MPA mix design was engineer-specified, each load was slump and air tested. During the pour, cylinders were taken every 50 meters. Because the concrete is mixed fresh on site, changes to the mix design to comply with the specification could easily be done at that particular moment – something that couldn’t possibly be done using a traditional batch plant. Hooper elaborates “If we had troubles with the concrete we’d have to phone over to the batch plant for remediation, then depending on the timing, there could have been one or two trucks on-site to be discharged, another truck on its way that could mean a lot of rejected concrete before the batchman could remedy the mix.”

TECH TIP: ADMIXTURE SYSTEM MAINTENANCE

Keep your Reimer Running at Peak Performance 

Regularly flushing your admixture system is an important part of the maintenance for your Reimer Mixer. Follow these steps to ensure that proper maintenance is performed…

1. Remove screens from the admixture filters.
2. Flush the tanks with clean, hot water.
3. Wash screens and replace.
4. Pump hot water throughout the entire system.
   NOTE: the pump head may be disassembled for cleaning and inspection.
   NOTE: be aware that the LOW flow pump will have 2 plungers removed from the valve assembly.
5. Flow meters may also be disassembled for cleaning and inspection – a good reference source in an online manual at www.hedland.com form # HLIT 205-2G.
   NOTE: If the system has been frozen, the flow meter tube may have expanded which will prevent the indicator from moving freely.
6. Check the condition of all hoses, valves and fittings. Replace where necessary, repair any leaks.
7. Confirm that the pumps will operate in both the prime and on positions.
   NOTE: The on position will also require the conveyor belt switch to be activated.
8. Pump a full tank of clean water through the system.
9. When you are ready to use the system with chemicals, recheck your calibration data and confirm that you are accurately metering product.

You can easily add a wash-out system that is connected to the mixer water circuit with a small amount of plumbing. This will allow for periodic cleaning of the admixture system with very little effort.

During freezing conditions, it is recommended that RV anti-freeze be circulated throughout the lines to prevent freeze-up. The anti-freeze can be purged and collected for re-use when you begin to use admixture chemicals.

Check our website at www.reimermix.com for additional maintenance and technical tips that will help you to keep your Reimer running at peak performance.

Allan Spreeman
Director, Production & Product Development